TL;DR - Jan '24 - Had a T6 Caravelle, sold a T6 Caravelle, bought a BMW, sold a BMW, leased an electric car and bought a T5, sold a T5, sent lease car back, Apr '25 bought a T6 'velle and it's broken 
I had T6 Caravelle for a couple of years until the beginning of last year when I, stupidly, figured that the van was too big for my needs. Kids had grown up and moved out, and it was just myself and Mrs Disturbed, so the 'velle was sold, and a very nice 3 series touring took it's place.
We did a lovely road trip down to Rome & Pompeii over the course of 10 days, but coming back through Switzerland made me really miss the ability to stop over and camp for the night. As we sat in an AirBnB in the alps, I made the decision to sell the BMW to my eldest son (it is his dream car in his perfect spec), order a Polestar 2 through the works lease scheme and buy another van.
By the time we left Switzerland in the morning, a deal was done with my son (who did very nicely out of Dad, thank you very much
), the lease car was ordered, and arrangements had been made to go and see an LWB T5 with low mileage when we got back to the UK.
2 weeks later, the Polestar was delivered, and the T5 was on the drive. I got the van for a song, but it absolutely reeked inside - a mix of a heavy smoker previous owner and a leaking exhaust. I cleaned the buggery out of it (technical term, sorry), chucked in a forty-winks bed and the rest of our camping gear, and Mrs Disturbed & I enjoyed the rest of the summer weekends pootling around and visiting some fabulous spots.
A move away from permanent employment and back into contracting meant that the Polestar had to go back. I didn't want to daily our Impreza, so the hunt was on for a small runaround for my wife with the expectation we would use the T5 for family duties etc. This was a fantastic plan, right up until the T5 failed its MOT (expensively), the heater packed up and the awful exhaust smell came back.
The universe appeared to be telling me something, so with a starting budget of around 20k, the hunt was on for a(nother) T6. Ideally, I wanted 6/7 seats, Auto & Aircon, but it soon became apparent that my budget only really stretched to a panel van or a really leggy Kombi. Evenings spent on Autotrader saw the budget gently creep up until I found a 16 plate Caravelle in my ideal spec (incidentally, at this point, the gentle creep suddenly became a gallop)
So here we are, 14 months after deciding that I didn't really need a Caravelle anymore, and, because I am a child with zero impulse control, I'm now the proud owner of this: a '16 plate Caravelle in Indium Gray (I think!), Executive spec, 70k miles, full leather, full VWSH, with all the toys and 4motion to boot.
I picked it up on Friday and took it straight for a run up to Oxford from Herts. It seemed to run really well, although I did think it was holding on to a higher gear than necessary at low speed, but I reserved judgment initially as I thought it may just be a 4motion characteristic. Saturday's drive home was lovely, although I noticed that starting from cold and pulling away, it felt like it was in the wrong gear and stalled (a new one on me as I've had 4 or 5 autos and didn't think it was possible!). Starting it back up, it seemed to be fine and ran perfectly for the rest of the journey.
The stalling issue reappeared this morning from cold, and the holding of gears seemed to be worse for the first mile or two. Then, this afternoon, following a brief stop after a 20-mile drive, the EML came on and stayed on. Despite the EML, the van ran exactly as it had before.
My eldest son is bringing his ODB reader around first thing in the morning in advance of calling the dealer to get it booked back in.
Despite all of this, I really like the van, and the dealer seems like a decent sort, so I'm hopeful we'll get a speedy fix and the years' camping and touring plans can get underway in earnest
I had T6 Caravelle for a couple of years until the beginning of last year when I, stupidly, figured that the van was too big for my needs. Kids had grown up and moved out, and it was just myself and Mrs Disturbed, so the 'velle was sold, and a very nice 3 series touring took it's place.
We did a lovely road trip down to Rome & Pompeii over the course of 10 days, but coming back through Switzerland made me really miss the ability to stop over and camp for the night. As we sat in an AirBnB in the alps, I made the decision to sell the BMW to my eldest son (it is his dream car in his perfect spec), order a Polestar 2 through the works lease scheme and buy another van.
By the time we left Switzerland in the morning, a deal was done with my son (who did very nicely out of Dad, thank you very much
), the lease car was ordered, and arrangements had been made to go and see an LWB T5 with low mileage when we got back to the UK.2 weeks later, the Polestar was delivered, and the T5 was on the drive. I got the van for a song, but it absolutely reeked inside - a mix of a heavy smoker previous owner and a leaking exhaust. I cleaned the buggery out of it (technical term, sorry), chucked in a forty-winks bed and the rest of our camping gear, and Mrs Disturbed & I enjoyed the rest of the summer weekends pootling around and visiting some fabulous spots.
A move away from permanent employment and back into contracting meant that the Polestar had to go back. I didn't want to daily our Impreza, so the hunt was on for a small runaround for my wife with the expectation we would use the T5 for family duties etc. This was a fantastic plan, right up until the T5 failed its MOT (expensively), the heater packed up and the awful exhaust smell came back.
The universe appeared to be telling me something, so with a starting budget of around 20k, the hunt was on for a(nother) T6. Ideally, I wanted 6/7 seats, Auto & Aircon, but it soon became apparent that my budget only really stretched to a panel van or a really leggy Kombi. Evenings spent on Autotrader saw the budget gently creep up until I found a 16 plate Caravelle in my ideal spec (incidentally, at this point, the gentle creep suddenly became a gallop)
So here we are, 14 months after deciding that I didn't really need a Caravelle anymore, and, because I am a child with zero impulse control, I'm now the proud owner of this: a '16 plate Caravelle in Indium Gray (I think!), Executive spec, 70k miles, full leather, full VWSH, with all the toys and 4motion to boot.
I picked it up on Friday and took it straight for a run up to Oxford from Herts. It seemed to run really well, although I did think it was holding on to a higher gear than necessary at low speed, but I reserved judgment initially as I thought it may just be a 4motion characteristic. Saturday's drive home was lovely, although I noticed that starting from cold and pulling away, it felt like it was in the wrong gear and stalled (a new one on me as I've had 4 or 5 autos and didn't think it was possible!). Starting it back up, it seemed to be fine and ran perfectly for the rest of the journey.
The stalling issue reappeared this morning from cold, and the holding of gears seemed to be worse for the first mile or two. Then, this afternoon, following a brief stop after a 20-mile drive, the EML came on and stayed on. Despite the EML, the van ran exactly as it had before.
My eldest son is bringing his ODB reader around first thing in the morning in advance of calling the dealer to get it booked back in.
Despite all of this, I really like the van, and the dealer seems like a decent sort, so I'm hopeful we'll get a speedy fix and the years' camping and touring plans can get underway in earnest
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